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The Last Fossil Primate in North America, New Material of the Enigmatic Ekgmowechashala from the Arikareean of Oregon Joshua X

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The Last Fossil Primate in North America, New Material of the Enigmatic Ekgmowechashala from the Arikareean of Oregon Joshua X University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers National Park Service 2015 The Last Fossil Primate in North America, New Material of the Enigmatic Ekgmowechashala From the Arikareean of Oregon Joshua X. Samuels National Park Service L. Barry Albright University of North Florida Theodore J. Fremd National Park Service Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natlpark Samuels, Joshua X.; Albright, L. Barry; and Fremd, Theodore J., "The Last Fossil Primate in North America, New Material of the Enigmatic Ekgmowechashala From the Arikareean of Oregon" (2015). U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers. 135. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/natlpark/135 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the National Park Service at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in U.S. National Park Service Publications and Papers by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 158:43–54 (2015) The Last Fossil Primate in North America, New Material of the Enigmatic Ekgmowechashala From the Arikareean of Oregon Joshua X. Samuels,1* L. Barry Albright,2 and Theodore J. Fremd1,3 1National Park Service, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Kimberly, OR 97848 2Department of Physics, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL 32224 3Department of Geological Sciences, Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403 KEY WORDS Ekgmowechashalinae; Adapiformes; John Day Formation ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE: Primates were common in chashala to a pair of recently described Asian primates, North America through most of the Eocene, but vanished in Muangthanhinius and Bugtilemur, suggests that it is a the Chadronian, about 35 million years ago. In the Arikar- strepsirrhine adapiform, rather than an omomyid. The eean, about 6 million years later, the enigmatic primate well-defined stratigraphy and dated marker beds of the Ekgmowechashala appeared in the Great Plains and Ore- Turtle Cove Member provide a refined age for Ekgmowe- gon. This taxon shows little resemblance to other North chashala occurrences in Oregon, during the Oligocene American primates and its phylogenetic position has long (early Arikareean). been debated. New material of this taxon allows a revised CONCLUSIONS: The age and morphology of these ekg- assessment of its age and how it is related to other primates. mowechashaline taxa suggest that the group originated METHODS: Recently collected Ekgmowechashala speci- in Asia and dispersed to North America in the Oligo- mens from the Turtle Cove Member of the John Day cene, after the extinction of other primates in North Formation in Oregon are described. These specimens are America. Contemporaneous occurrences of Ekgmowecha- compared to previously collected material from South shala in Oregon and the Great Plains indicate the last Dakota and Nebraska, as well as other fossil primates non-human primates vanished in North America about from North America and Asia. 26 million years ago. Am J Phys Anthropol 158:43–54, RESULTS: Study of the John Day material allows diag- 2015. VC 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. nosis of a new, distinct species. Comparison of Ekgmowe- During the Eocene, the earth was in a ‘greenhouse’ The phylogenetic position of this taxon has been long state free from permanent ice sheets (Zachos et al., 2001). debated, with various authors placing Ekgmowechashala Euprimates first appeared in North America during the in the Omomyidae (Primates) (MacDonald, 1963, 1970; early Eocene (Bown and Rose, 1987; Smith et al., 2006; Szalay, 1976; Szalay and Delson, 1979; Rose and Beard, 2008) and much of North America was inhabited Rensberger, 1983; Gunnell et al., 2008), Plagiomenidae by primates through the middle Eocene (Gunnell et al., (Dermoptera) (McKenna, 1990), and most recently in the 2008). During the late middle Eocene (42–37 Ma) global Adapiformes (Primates) (Ni et al., 2010). climate conditions changed dramatically. In North Amer- John Day Formation strata in the Sheep Rock area (Fig. ica, this resulted in a shift from semi-tropical closed can- 1) have been studied for about 150 years. The best known opy forests to more open woodland and savannah assemblage from that area is the Oligocene aged Turtle habitats, and a corresponding decrease in primate diver- Cove fauna, which includes nearly 100 recognized mammal sity (Storer, 1990; Janis, 1993; Wing, 1998; Gunnell et al., species (Fremd, 2010). In 1997, the first stratigraphically 2008; Townsend et al., 2010). Multiple primate taxa sur- assignable specimen of Ekgmowechashala,aleftm1,was vived into the Duchesnean, but only the omomyid Roo- neyia from Texas and Chumashius survived into the early Chadronian (late Eocene) (Wilson, 1966; Ostrander, 1987). Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online After the extinction of Rooneyia and Chumashius almost version of this article. 35 million years ago, primates were absent from North America for about 6 million years, until the appearance of This article first appeared online on 29 June 2015 and has since been the enigmatic Ekgmowechashala in the early Arikareean changed. (MacDonald, 1963, 1970; Rose and Rensberger, 1983). Ekgmowechashala was originally known from nine *Correspondence to: Joshua Samuels, National Park Service, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Kimberly, OR 97848, dentary specimens from the Upper Sharps Formation of USA. E-mail: [email protected] South Dakota (MacDonald, 1963, 1970; Szalay, 1976), but a maxilla fragment with teeth from the John Day Received 15 January 2015; revised 1 May 2015; accepted 6 May Formation of Oregon was later assigned to this taxon 2015 (Rose and Rensberger, 1983). This rare primate has also been noted from the contemporaneous Gering Formation DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22769 of Nebraska and Turtle Butte Formation of South Published online 29 June 2015 in Wiley Online Library Dakota (Swisher, 1982; Schumaker, 2008; Martin, 2011). (wileyonlinelibrary.com). Ó 2015 WILEY PERIODICALS, INC. 44 J.X. SAMUELS ET AL. recovered from Turtle Cove unit H, a stratum containing early Arikareean (Ar1) fauna. After more than a decade of diligent searching, the exact same site yielded two additional specimens, a p4 and m3, in 2011. And in early 2015 a dentary fragment that fits the p4 and m1 was discovered, confirming that these teeth are from the same individual. In 2013 and 2014, two other partial m1s were collected from a second site on Sheep Rock, also within unit H. The well-defined stratig- raphy and a series of dated marker beds at these sites allow us to place these new specimens of Ekgmowechashala in a chronological and biostratigraphic context. Study of these new specimens confirms the presence of Ekgmowechashala in Oregon, facilitates direct comparison to specimens from the Great Plains, and refines the age of occurrence of the last non-human primate in North America. MATERIALS AND METHODS The specimens newly described here are all housed in Fig. 1. Map showing the Sheep Rock Unit of John Day the collection of John Day Fossil Beds National Monu- Fossil Beds National Monument, Grant County, Oregon. The ment. Comparisons made in this article are based pri- asterisk indicates the location of Sheep Rock, where the speci- mens described here were found. marily on study of casts of fossils at other institutions, supplemented by published photographs and drawings. Dental nomenclature used in comparative descriptions middle Eocene to early Miocene in age, about 39 to 18 follows that of Szalay (1976) and a labeled illustration is Ma (Hunt and Stepleton, 2004; Albright et al., 2008). included as a Supporting Information figure (Fig. S1). All of the specimens described here originate from Upper teeth are designated by capital letters and lower within the Turtle Cove Member of the John Day Forma- teeth by lower-case letters (e.g., M1 and m1). Measure- tion (Fig. 2), which is characterized by lithology consist- ments represent maximum lengths and widths taken at ing of zeolitized bluish-green and tan claystones and the occlusal surface. These measurements were taken siltstones (Fisher and Rensberger, 1972). Fremd et al. using Mitutoyo Absolute digital calipers to the nearest (1994) subdivided the Turtle Cove Member and the over- 0.01 mm. Precise locality information for recent collec- lying Kimberly Member into lithostratigraphic units A- tions, including GPS (global positioning satellite) data, is M, based on the individual lithologies of beds and inter- on file at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. spersed tuffs. There are currently 12 radiometric dates Abbreviations for institutions: JODA, John Day Fossil from the John Day Formation, including six tuffs within Beds National Monument; LACM, Natural History the Turtle Cove Member alone. These tuffs were radio- Museum of Los Angeles County; SDSM, South Dakota metrically dated using 40Ar/39Ar single-crystal laser- School of Mines and Technology, Museum of Geology; fusion (Albright et al., 2008). The radiometric dates rele- UCMP, University of California Museum of Paleontology. vant to this study are the following: Picture Gorge Ignimbrite (Member H of Robinson) dated 28.7 6 0.07 GEOLOGICAL SETTING Ma, Deep Creek Tuff dated 27.89 6 0.57 Ma, Biotite Tuff dated 27.14 6 0.13 Ma, and Tin Roof Tuff dated Distributed widely throughout central and eastern Ore- 25.9 6 0.3 Ma (Albright et
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